A pro baseballer’s quest for an IPL gig

Japanese infielder Shogo Kimura is serious about switching to cricket and is currently in the city on a recce.

Shogo Kimura wants to become the first professional baseball player from Japan to switch over to professional cricket and play in the Indian Premier League.

“I am a crazy,” he says with a big grin. Kimura, 37, is in Mumbai to watch a couple of Mumbai Indians games as part of his induction into his new sport. He watched a Delhi Daredevils game in Delhi over the weekend, too, and described the difference between them this way: “In Delhi, when Virat Kohli came to bat, everyone got up from their seats and tried to go to the front. In Mumbai, no Kohli, so everyone was sitting. Also, Mumbai lost, so the whole stadium was quiet.”

Dressed in a camouflage t-shirt and shorts, Kimura has the chiseled body of a professional athlete and physically, at least, looks up to the task of playing T20 cricket. He played in Nippon Professional Baseball from 2003 to 2017, mostly as an infielder. He was released from the Seibu Lions in 2017 but wanted to keep playing professional sport. So when the Japanese baseball players’ association approached him about moving to cricket on behalf of the Japanese Cricket Association last November, he said yes instantly.

Kimura admits he knew very little about cricket. But he thought at least some of skills as a baseball player would translate to cricket, especially fielding. While his fielding skills have helped – he now instructs other aspiring Japanese cricketers on the proper technique to catch and throw the ball – learning how to bat has been difficult, and painful. “Many, many bruises on all parts of my body,” he says. He even had his toe broken when he froze and couldn’t get his foot out of the way of a yorker.

The problem for Kimura, who is left-handed, is that in baseball, you mostly swing from a stationary stance. In cricket, a batsman’s feet have to move. In baseball, the ball is thrown away from the body and a batter will try to get out of the way if the ball is thrown at him. Kimura, therefore, has to change his thinking and try to undo reflexes honed over a 15-year career.

“My mind knows I have to hit the ball but my body would freeze when the ball was bowled at me,” he says. That said, when it comes to a waist high delivery, he has no problems pulling it over the ropes.

Kimura only began training in January. He says he is currently at one on a scale of one to 10 in his cricket journey. The Japanese Cricket Association, which supports him, has picked him to be part of the 20-man national team that will compete in the ICC’s World T20 qualifying in the Philippines in December, and the East Asian Cup.

Because Japanese cricketers are not professionals and have day jobs, he can only train with them on weekends. So in order to give himself as much practice as possible, he bats in the nets from 11 am to 4 pm while five or six of his team-mates take turns bowling at him. He has played four club games as well, with a reported top score of 62. Since cricket is not broadcast in Japan, Kimura has taken to watching matches on YouTube and says he has studied videos of Sachin Tendulkar batting.

As a veteran ballplayer trying a new sport, he is essentially a rookie all over again. “I feel like a kid,” he says and breaks into a big smile.

Kimura doesn’t mince words when asked what will make his attempt a success. “The IPL”, he says. He is under no illusions that this is a long shot, but he has a point when he says if he doesn’t believe he can do it, then he would already failed.

In order to get some muchneeded experience in T20 cricket, he and his backers are hoping to get a contract in Australia first, as the season there begins earlier. Waiting for the Indian season in 2019 would mean losing a whole year. If he impress in Australia, just maybe an Indian IPL franchise will invite him to be part of the team in some capacity, even if it is simply to help with logistics. In 2020, Kimura will be 40 and he reckons he has to make it by then or he won’t make it at all. And if he somehow succeeds in his crazy quest, what impact does he think it will have on cricket in Japan? “It will be a revolution,” he says, without batting an eye-lid.

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